Six Lake Erie water samples test positive for Asian Carp eDNA

Fed­eral and state wildlife offi­cials work­ing in con­junc­tion with aca­d­e­mic researchers today announced six water sam­ples taken from San­dusky and north Maumee bays of Lake Erie tested pos­i­tive for the pres­ence of Asian carp envi­ron­men­tal DNA in Michi­gan and Ohio waters.

The pos­i­tive sam­ples were among 417 taken from Lake Erie in August 2011, and more than 2,000 sam­ples taken from the Great Lakes Basin since 2010. The Lake Erie batch was recently ana­lyzed and test results were con­firmed by eDNA researchers this week. The six pos­i­tive sam­ples rep­re­sent less than 1.5 per­cent of the Lake Erie samples.

Four sam­ples from San­dusky Bay, in Ohio waters, tested pos­i­tive for big­head carp eDNA, while two sam­ples from north Maumee Bay, in Michi­gan waters, were pos­i­tive for sil­ver carp eDNA.

In response to these find­ings, electro-shocking and net­ting began Fri­day in San­dusky Bay with no evi­dence of Asian carp found. How­ever, addi­tional test­ing and mon­i­tor­ing are planned by the Ohio and Michi­gan Depart­ments of Nat­ural Resources in con­junc­tion with part­ner agencies.

The find­ings indi­cate the pres­ence of genetic mate­r­ial left behind by the species, such as scales, excre­ment or mucous, but not the estab­lish­ment of Asian carp in Lake Erie. Pos­i­tive eDNA tests are regarded by the sci­en­tific com­mu­nity as an indi­ca­tor of the species’ recent pres­ence, how­ever, pos­i­tive results can occur whether the organ­ism was alive or dead.

While the eDNA find­ings sug­gest the pos­si­ble pres­ence of the inva­sive species, offi­cials have no phys­i­cal evi­dence the fish have migrated to the Great Lakes. Prior to 2003, three indi­vid­ual big­head carp were col­lected in Lake Erie. No addi­tional obser­va­tions have been reported dur­ing the past decade.

“The results from these water sam­ples are cer­tainly con­cern­ing, as this marks the first time Asian carp eDNA has been detected in water sam­ples from Lake Erie, or any of the Michi­gan waters inten­sively sur­veyed for the pres­ence of inva­sive carp,” said Michi­gan DNR Fish­eries Divi­sion Chief Jim Dex­ter. “Pro­tect­ing the Great Lakes from the threat of Asian carp is crit­i­cal to the health of our sport and com­mer­cial fish­eries and to the qual­ity of life in Michi­gan. We are actively engaged in Asian carp sur­veil­lance pro­grams through­out the Great Lakes, includ­ing Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, and the Depart­ment stands ready to take the nec­es­sary and appro­pri­ate actions to inves­ti­gate and respond to these test results.”

In response to the pos­i­tive test results, offi­cials from the Michi­gan and Ohio DNRs, the Michi­gan Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­ity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, and White House Coun­cil on Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­ity are devel­op­ing a plan of action in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the eDNA research team to obtain follow-up sam­ples and test results as quickly as pos­si­ble. Test results from future water sam­ples will dic­tate the nature of fur­ther response methods.

“This lake is Ohio’s great­est resource and our main objec­tive is to keep it healthy,” said Rich Carter, Ohio DNR’s Exec­u­tive Fish Man­age­ment and Research Admin­is­tra­tor. “The DNA find­ings have put Ohio fish and wildlife offi­cers on high alert and mar­shaled our imme­di­ate action. In response to these find­ings, electro-shocking and net­ting in the iden­ti­fied areas of San­dusky Bay have already been com­pleted and no Asian carp were found. Test­ing and mon­i­tor­ing will con­tinue and we will work with Michi­gan and our other man­age­ment part­ners to develop a coor­di­nated approach to defin­ing the sta­tus of Asian carp in Lake Erie.”

Since 2010, the Michi­gan DNR, Ohio DNR, USFWS, Uni­ver­sity of Notre Dame, Cen­tral Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity and the Nature Con­ser­vancy have part­nered to col­lect water sam­ples from Great Lakes basin waters, includ­ing the Chicago Area Water­way Sys­tem, south­ern Lake Michi­gan, west­ern Lake Erie and trib­u­tary streams of lakes Michi­gan and Erie.

The col­lab­o­ra­tive early-detection Asian carp sur­veil­lance pro­gram is funded by the USFWS with a fed­eral Great Lakes Restora­tion Ini­tia­tive grant, admin­is­tered under the Asian Carp Con­trol Strat­egy Framework.

Asian carp, includ­ing big­head and sil­ver carp, pose a sig­nif­i­cant threat to the Great Lakes ecosys­tem and econ­omy. Anglers are urged to become famil­iar with the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of Asian carp, includ­ing both adults and juve­niles, as the spread of juve­nile Asian carp through the use of live bait buck­ets has been iden­ti­fied as a poten­tial point of entry into Great Lakes waters.

A video demon­strat­ing how to iden­tify big­head and sil­ver carp can be viewed on the USFWS YouTube chan­nel at http://youtu.be/B49OWrCRs38. Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion guides, fre­quently asked ques­tions, man­age­ment plans and an online report­ing form are avail­able online at www.michigan.gov/asiancarp and www.wildohio.com, or call 800-WILDLIFE.

• The eighth Annual Water­fowlers Boot Camp and Out­door Fes­ti­val will be held July 21 and 22 at the Car­di­nal Cen­ter Camp­ground in Marengo.

The two-day event, pre­sented by the Ohio Water­fowl Asso­ci­a­tion, fea­tures more than 75 ven­dors demon­strat­ing and sell­ing hunt­ing equip­ment, on-going sem­i­nars led by pro­fes­sional call­ing and hunt­ing celebri­ties, and seven water­fowl call­ing con­tests includ­ing sanc­tioned qual­i­fiers for the Ohio State Cham­pi­onship and the Great Lakes Cham­pi­onship, as well as two $1000 shootouts.

This year’s noted out­door celebri­ties sched­uled to attend include: George Lynch, Jim Ron­quest, Ed Detty, Field Hud­nall, and Cap­tain Jeff Coats.

A Kids Boot Camp Sat­ur­day morn­ing will teach shoot­ing, call­ing and hunt­ing tech­niques to youth age 6–12, and camp­ing is avail­able on the 200-acre Car­di­nal Cen­ter, which serve at the home grounds of the Ohio State Trap­shoot­ing Asso­ci­a­tion and fea­ture sport­ing clays, 3-D archery and trap­shoot­ing and offers camp­ing, fish­ing and an indoor swim­ming pool.

Park­ing and admis­sion to the Water­fowlers Boot Camp are free. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat­ur­day, July 21 and 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.; Sun­day, July 22. For more infor­ma­tion and a list of the sem­i­nar sched­ule visit www.waterfowlbootcamp.com.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Jul 18 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.